The caliber of core teaching has the greatest influence on whether or not our English Learners (ELs) thrive. Consider the following: Three in four U.S. classrooms have at least one student who is an English learner. Even in schools with EL specialists, ELs spend the majority of their instructional day with core classroom teachers. We know this, yet too often forget it when designing EL programs and solutions. Instead, many…

Mention peer observation inquiry (OI) in education circles, and one of the first questions is always, “How do you build teacher buy-in?” It’s a critical question. Teacher leaders, however, ask another important question: “How do you build administrator buy-in and support for peer observation inquiry?” Here are five tips to help teacher leaders engage administrators in supporting effective, job-embedded professional learning.

At George I. Sanchez Community School, a Title I school in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Title I Kindergarten students are actively using technology to collaborate, create and communicate in ways that deepen content learning. It didn’t start this way. Learn how teachers collaborated to transform their teaching.

No matter how good our intentions to be free of prejudice, we all have implicit biases that can have a serious impact on our work in schools.

Implicit bias refers to stereotypes or attitudes that affect our decisions and actions. Unlike explicit bias, which is intentional and part of our belief systems, implicit bias is an association we have that is unconscious and unintentional.

In part I of this three-part blog series, I challenged the notion that Twitter should replace professional development. A total replacement would be tragic, but using Twitter to enhance professional learning has serious potential.

There is buzz online about Twitter replacing professional development. Is it a good idea, or problematic to focus all professional learning time on hashtags and tweets? Join us in exploring this provocative question.

In the spirit of holiday fun, I’ve rewritten a classic song from the 1700s with a twenty-first century twist. This is dedicated to educators, leaders and innovators engaged in professional learning networks (PLN).

For the past several years I have been collaborating with educators across diverse districts to test and refine Observation Inquiry (OI), a powerful approach to leading teacher learning in classrooms together. I’ve been researching, filming, editing, and writing to create a concrete how-to guide to share this work with you.